Friday, March 03, 2017

MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — The youngsters of the Ann
Campbell Early Learning Center at MTSU spent much of Thursday, March 2,
happily greeting visitors with gifts intended to expand their minds and bodies.

First, in observance of “Read Across America Day,”
the little ones at the North Baird Lane facility listened excitedly to storybooks
read by two-time MTSU alumna LaShan
Mathews Dixon, a health educator with the Rutherford County Health
Department and a former Miss MTSU and Miss Black Tennessee and current National
Ms. Unite.

Then, friends from Nissan North America in Smyrna delivered four new “Cozy Coupe”
riding toys for the ACE Center’s playground, which is being revamped into a
natural playscape that’s fully wheelchair-accessible.

“What an exciting day! We’re beyond grateful to
people in the community coming to read and bringing us donations,” said center
director Christy Davis.

“The
children love to have company here, and the parents love it too, because the
more people we have coming in to the center, the more excitement and fun and
more new friends and relationships that we’re building in the community.”

MTSU’s
ACE Learning Center provides learning environments for children with and
without developmental delays from age 13 months to kindergarten, allowing them
to play together and learn from each other. Teachers at the center plan
activities that help each child develop good communication, social, cognitive
and motor skills, and students majoring in early childhood education work with
and monitor the children for class credit.

Dixon and
her husband, Lamar, have an almost-2-year-old daughter, Londyn, so she easily
joked, answered questions, showed off her sparkling pageant crown and shared
hugs with the children in the ACE Center’s Green Room, which serves 13- to
24-month-old toddlers; the Red Room, where 2- and 3-year-olds learn; and the
Blue Room, which serves 3- and 4-year-olds. The center teaches 4- to
5-year-olds in its Yellow Room in the Fairview Building across campus.

A farm
animals book got a good response from the youngest children, but pulling out
“Llama Llama Red Pajama” wound them up like little alarm clocks, yelling
“HEYYYY!” with the frantic title character, imitating telephones and begging
“Read it again, please!” while their fish-filled aquariums burbled in the
background.

“I love
storytime so much,” Dixon told the kids. “I read to my baby girl all the time,
and she acts like y’all do about her books.”

Nissan
representatives, working through the company’s Multicultural Business Synergy
Team, contacted Davis to see what items the center might need this spring.

The
company, like others in the community, works through the ACE “Wishing Tree”
program to bring in napkins, paper towels, wet wipes, paper cups, cleaning
supplies and other similar items donated by its employees.

Magen Clayton, an engineer in Nissan’s New
Model Trim and Chassis Engineering department, and JaMichael Smith, an inventory control analyst for Nissan Supply
Chain Management, returned to North Baird this time with new smiling-faced
Little Tikes cars, which are favorites among the center’s children.

“About
every couple of months I’ll get a call from someone in the community, asking, ‘Can
we help you?’ and of course we say, with open arms, ‘Absolutely! And thank
you!’” said Davis. “There are times when someone will say that they have something
for us, or ask whether this is a need, and there’s times they’ll say, ‘Will you
send me a wish list? What are you needing at the present?’”

Obviously,
with 45 busy children, supplies run out and even well-maintained equipment gets
worn, so the ACE Center appreciates donations of all kinds to serve its
students.

Individuals
and businesses wanting to help can contact the center at acelearningcenter@mtsu.edu or
615-898-2458. Financial donations, such as those intended to help fund the
playground project, can be made by contacting Lucie Burchfield, development director for MTSU’s College of
Education, at 615-898-5032 or lucie.burchfield@mtsu.edu.

The ACE
Center children conducted their own fundraiser for the playground last fall, creating
four special pieces of art for an “art ransom” event, then inviting the
community to their Fairview Building “gallery” to view the artwork, enjoy
snacks and purchase each piece.

“Right
now we have a temporary playground,” Davis said. “The children call it the ‘new
playground,’ but I can’t wait to see their faces when it actually IS the new
playground, especially since it’ll be wheelchair-accessible.

“We’ve had babies in the past, and I’m know we’ll have more in the future, who
use wheelchairs, and this will be a great asset for them.”

For more information about the Ann Campbell Early
Learning Center and its work, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/acelearningcenter
or check its Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/AnnCampbellEarlyLearningCenter.